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Nanomachines

A light-powered clockwork

An organogel is made of molecular motors and modulators that act cooperatively to perform a full mechanical cycle of contraction and expansion at the macroscale.

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Figure 1: Graphical illustration of a mechanical watch (left) and the mainspring winding mechanism (right).
Figure 2: A macroscopic contraction–expansion cycle completed by operating molecular motors and modulators in a polymer network.

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Correspondence to Chenfeng Ke.

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Ke, C. A light-powered clockwork. Nature Nanotech 12, 504–506 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2017.44

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